The present invention relates generally to peripherals of electronic apparatuses, such as laptop personal computers (“notebook PCs”), portable terminals, personal digital assistants (“PDAs”), and more particularly to a functional expansion unit for use with the electronic apparatus or hardware. The “peripheral”, as used herein, is such hardware as is connectable with a PC body and realizes a necessary function. The “functional expansion unit” is an interface device for expanding a function of the electronic apparatus, such as a docking station, a docking bay (device), and an expansion bay (device). The present invention is suitable, for example, for a docking station. The “docking station”, as used herein, is an interface device that is connected, for example, to a laptop PC, etc. when the laptop PC is used not outside but on a desk in his office, etc., so as to make available a certain function that is otherwise unavailable in the laptop PC.
The recent development and spread of laptop PCs, portable terminals and portable electronic apparatuses have increasingly demanded compact and lightweight electronic apparatuses for portability purposes which nevertheless exhibit such affluent functions on a desk in an office as a desktop PC. For example, a pen note type PC has such an A4 size, for example, that it enables a user to enter information using a pen without a keyboard, and has a thin, small and lightweight body for portability purposes. In addition, the pen note type PC is connected to a docking station in an office and thus connectible to an FDD, CRT, LAN, USB, etc.
A description will now be given of a fixture between a conventional pen note type PC 10 and a docking station 20, with reference to FIG. 22. Here, FIG. 22 is a perspective overview for explaining a fixture between the conventional pen note type PC body 10 and the docking station 20. The pen note type PC body 10 includes a connector 11, a pair of side surfaces 12, a front surface 14, and a rear surface 15. The docking station 20 includes a PC fixing part 20A for fixing the PC body 10, and a base 20B. The PC fixing part 20A includes a connector 21, a pair of rails 22, a pair of guides 24, and a front cover 25. The PC body 10 slides on the pair of rails 22 through its rear surface 15, and the side surfaces 12 are guided by the pair of guides 24. Its connector 11 is connected to the connector 21, and the front surface 14 is guided by the front cover 25.
However, the structure shown in FIG. 22 has a disadvantage in that the PC body 10 slides on the PC fixing part 20A in the docking station 20 for connection with the docking station 20, and thus the side surfaces 12, front surface 14, and rear surface 15 on the PC body 10 are subject to scratches due to contacts with the guides 24, front cover 25 and rails 22, and are unsuitable for ornaments including coating.
An attempt to improve display convenience has recently been proposed by enabling the PC body 10 to rotate by 90 degrees after the PC body 10 is attached to the docking station 20. Such a configuration is convenience, for example, because the entire A4-sized document may be displayed on one screen. This structure may be realized by making the PC fixing part 20A in the docking station 20 rotatable relative to the base 20B. However, this configuration requires the rotary axis to be arranged at a position indicated by an alternate long and short dash line in FIG. 23, thus requiring a long cable as shown by broken line susceptible to noises and crosstalks, and increasing costs.
In addition, while the configuration shown in FIG. 23 facilitates the connection of the PC body 10 to the PC fixing part 20A from the top, it has bad operability in attaching the PC body 10 from the side after the PC fixing part 20A has been rotated by 90 degrees. This is because the PC body 10 should slide on the PC fixing part 20A.